Mailman 3 June 2005 - Python-Dev

PEP 1, PEP Purpose and Guidelines
by barry＠zope.com May 18, 2021

May 18, 2021

It has been a while since I posted a copy of PEP 1 to the mailing lists and newsgroups. I've recently done some updating of a few sections, so in the interest of gaining wider community participation in the Python development process, I'm posting the latest revision of PEP 1 here. A version of the PEP is always available on-line at http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0001.html Enjoy, -Barry -------------------- snip snip -------------------- PEP: 1 Title: PEP Purpose and Guidelines Version: $Revision: 1.36 $ Last-Modified: $Date: 2002/07/29 18:34:59 $ Author: Barry A. Warsaw, Jeremy Hylton Status: Active Type: Informational Created: 13-Jun-2000 Post-History: 21-Mar-2001, 29-Jul-2002 What is a PEP? PEP stands for Python Enhancement Proposal. A PEP is a design document providing information to the Python community, or describing a new feature for Python. The PEP should provide a concise technical specification of the feature and a rationale for the feature. We intend PEPs to be the primary mechanisms for proposing new features, for collecting community input on an issue, and for documenting the design decisions that have gone into Python. The PEP author is responsible for building consensus within the community and documenting dissenting opinions. Because the PEPs are maintained as plain text files under CVS control, their revision history is the historical record of the feature proposal[1]. Kinds of PEPs There are two kinds of PEPs. A standards track PEP describes a new feature or implementation for Python. An informational PEP describes a Python design issue, or provides general guidelines or information to the Python community, but does not propose a new feature. Informational PEPs do not necessarily represent a Python community consensus or recommendation, so users and implementors are free to ignore informational PEPs or follow their advice. PEP Work Flow The PEP editor, Barry Warsaw <peps(a)python.org>, assigns numbers for each PEP and changes its status. The PEP process begins with a new idea for Python. It is highly recommended that a single PEP contain a single key proposal or new idea. The more focussed the PEP, the more successfully it tends to be. The PEP editor reserves the right to reject PEP proposals if they appear too unfocussed or too broad. If in doubt, split your PEP into several well-focussed ones. Each PEP must have a champion -- someone who writes the PEP using the style and format described below, shepherds the discussions in the appropriate forums, and attempts to build community consensus around the idea. The PEP champion (a.k.a. Author) should first attempt to ascertain whether the idea is PEP-able. Small enhancements or patches often don't need a PEP and can be injected into the Python development work flow with a patch submission to the SourceForge patch manager[2] or feature request tracker[3]. The PEP champion then emails the PEP editor <peps(a)python.org> with a proposed title and a rough, but fleshed out, draft of the PEP. This draft must be written in PEP style as described below. If the PEP editor approves, he will assign the PEP a number, label it as standards track or informational, give it status 'draft', and create and check-in the initial draft of the PEP. The PEP editor will not unreasonably deny a PEP. Reasons for denying PEP status include duplication of effort, being technically unsound, not providing proper motivation or addressing backwards compatibility, or not in keeping with the Python philosophy. The BDFL (Benevolent Dictator for Life, Guido van Rossum) can be consulted during the approval phase, and is the final arbitrator of the draft's PEP-ability. If a pre-PEP is rejected, the author may elect to take the pre-PEP to the comp.lang.python newsgroup (a.k.a. python-list(a)python.org mailing list) to help flesh it out, gain feedback and consensus from the community at large, and improve the PEP for re-submission. The author of the PEP is then responsible for posting the PEP to the community forums, and marshaling community support for it. As updates are necessary, the PEP author can check in new versions if they have CVS commit permissions, or can email new PEP versions to the PEP editor for committing. Standards track PEPs consists of two parts, a design document and a reference implementation. The PEP should be reviewed and accepted before a reference implementation is begun, unless a reference implementation will aid people in studying the PEP. Standards Track PEPs must include an implementation - in the form of code, patch, or URL to same - before it can be considered Final. PEP authors are responsible for collecting community feedback on a PEP before submitting it for review. A PEP that has not been discussed on python-list(a)python.org and/or python-dev(a)python.org will not be accepted. However, wherever possible, long open-ended discussions on public mailing lists should be avoided. Strategies to keep the discussions efficient include, setting up a separate SIG mailing list for the topic, having the PEP author accept private comments in the early design phases, etc. PEP authors should use their discretion here. Once the authors have completed a PEP, they must inform the PEP editor that it is ready for review. PEPs are reviewed by the BDFL and his chosen consultants, who may accept or reject a PEP or send it back to the author(s) for revision. Once a PEP has been accepted, the reference implementation must be completed. When the reference implementation is complete and accepted by the BDFL, the status will be changed to `Final.' A PEP can also be assigned status `Deferred.' The PEP author or editor can assign the PEP this status when no progress is being made on the PEP. Once a PEP is deferred, the PEP editor can re-assign it to draft status. A PEP can also be `Rejected'. Perhaps after all is said and done it was not a good idea. It is still important to have a record of this fact. PEPs can also be replaced by a different PEP, rendering the original obsolete. This is intended for Informational PEPs, where version 2 of an API can replace version 1. PEP work flow is as follows: Draft -> Accepted -> Final -> Replaced ^ +----> Rejected v Deferred Some informational PEPs may also have a status of `Active' if they are never meant to be completed. E.g. PEP 1. What belongs in a successful PEP? Each PEP should have the following parts: 1. Preamble -- RFC822 style headers containing meta-data about the PEP, including the PEP number, a short descriptive title (limited to a maximum of 44 characters), the names, and optionally the contact info for each author, etc. 2. Abstract -- a short (~200 word) description of the technical issue being addressed. 3. Copyright/public domain -- Each PEP must either be explicitly labelled as placed in the public domain (see this PEP as an example) or licensed under the Open Publication License[4]. 4. Specification -- The technical specification should describe the syntax and semantics of any new language feature. The specification should be detailed enough to allow competing, interoperable implementations for any of the current Python platforms (CPython, JPython, Python .NET). 5. Motivation -- The motivation is critical for PEPs that want to change the Python language. It should clearly explain why the existing language specification is inadequate to address the problem that the PEP solves. PEP submissions without sufficient motivation may be rejected outright. 6. Rationale -- The rationale fleshes out the specification by describing what motivated the design and why particular design decisions were made. It should describe alternate designs that were considered and related work, e.g. how the feature is supported in other languages. The rationale should provide evidence of consensus within the community and discuss important objections or concerns raised during discussion. 7. Backwards Compatibility -- All PEPs that introduce backwards incompatibilities must include a section describing these incompatibilities and their severity. The PEP must explain how the author proposes to deal with these incompatibilities. PEP submissions without a sufficient backwards compatibility treatise may be rejected outright. 8. Reference Implementation -- The reference implementation must be completed before any PEP is given status 'Final,' but it need not be completed before the PEP is accepted. It is better to finish the specification and rationale first and reach consensus on it before writing code. The final implementation must include test code and documentation appropriate for either the Python language reference or the standard library reference. PEP Template PEPs are written in plain ASCII text, and should adhere to a rigid style. There is a Python script that parses this style and converts the plain text PEP to HTML for viewing on the web[5]. PEP 9 contains a boilerplate[7] template you can use to get started writing your PEP. Each PEP must begin with an RFC822 style header preamble. The headers must appear in the following order. Headers marked with `*' are optional and are described below. All other headers are required. PEP: <pep number> Title: <pep title> Version: <cvs version string> Last-Modified: <cvs date string> Author: <list of authors' real names and optionally, email addrs> * Discussions-To: <email address> Status: <Draft | Active | Accepted | Deferred | Final | Replaced> Type: <Informational | Standards Track> * Requires: <pep numbers> Created: <date created on, in dd-mmm-yyyy format> * Python-Version: <version number> Post-History: <dates of postings to python-list and python-dev> * Replaces: <pep number> * Replaced-By: <pep number> The Author: header lists the names and optionally, the email addresses of all the authors/owners of the PEP. The format of the author entry should be address(a)dom.ain (Random J. User) if the email address is included, and just Random J. User if the address is not given. If there are multiple authors, each should be on a separate line following RFC 822 continuation line conventions. Note that personal email addresses in PEPs will be obscured as a defense against spam harvesters. Standards track PEPs must have a Python-Version: header which indicates the version of Python that the feature will be released with. Informational PEPs do not need a Python-Version: header. While a PEP is in private discussions (usually during the initial Draft phase), a Discussions-To: header will indicate the mailing list or URL where the PEP is being discussed. No Discussions-To: header is necessary if the PEP is being discussed privately with the author, or on the python-list or python-dev email mailing lists. Note that email addresses in the Discussions-To: header will not be obscured. Created: records the date that the PEP was assigned a number, while Post-History: is used to record the dates of when new versions of the PEP are posted to python-list and/or python-dev. Both headers should be in dd-mmm-yyyy format, e.g. 14-Aug-2001. PEPs may have a Requires: header, indicating the PEP numbers that this PEP depends on. PEPs may also have a Replaced-By: header indicating that a PEP has been rendered obsolete by a later document; the value is the number of the PEP that replaces the current document. The newer PEP must have a Replaces: header containing the number of the PEP that it rendered obsolete. PEP Formatting Requirements PEP headings must begin in column zero and the initial letter of each word must be capitalized as in book titles. Acronyms should be in all capitals. The body of each section must be indented 4 spaces. Code samples inside body sections should be indented a further 4 spaces, and other indentation can be used as required to make the text readable. You must use two blank lines between the last line of a section's body and the next section heading. You must adhere to the Emacs convention of adding two spaces at the end of every sentence. You should fill your paragraphs to column 70, but under no circumstances should your lines extend past column 79. If your code samples spill over column 79, you should rewrite them. Tab characters must never appear in the document at all. A PEP should include the standard Emacs stanza included by example at the bottom of this PEP. A PEP must contain a Copyright section, and it is strongly recommended to put the PEP in the public domain. When referencing an external web page in the body of a PEP, you should include the title of the page in the text, with a footnote reference to the URL. Do not include the URL in the body text of the PEP. E.g. Refer to the Python Language web site [1] for more details. ... [1] http://www.python.org When referring to another PEP, include the PEP number in the body text, such as "PEP 1". The title may optionally appear. Add a footnote reference that includes the PEP's title and author. It may optionally include the explicit URL on a separate line, but only in the References section. Note that the pep2html.py script will calculate URLs automatically, e.g.: ... Refer to PEP 1 [7] for more information about PEP style ... References [7] PEP 1, PEP Purpose and Guidelines, Warsaw, Hylton http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0001.html If you decide to provide an explicit URL for a PEP, please use this as the URL template: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-xxxx.html PEP numbers in URLs must be padded with zeros from the left, so as to be exactly 4 characters wide, however PEP numbers in text are never padded. Reporting PEP Bugs, or Submitting PEP Updates How you report a bug, or submit a PEP update depends on several factors, such as the maturity of the PEP, the preferences of the PEP author, and the nature of your comments. For the early draft stages of the PEP, it's probably best to send your comments and changes directly to the PEP author. For more mature, or finished PEPs you may want to submit corrections to the SourceForge bug manager[6] or better yet, the SourceForge patch manager[2] so that your changes don't get lost. If the PEP author is a SF developer, assign the bug/patch to him, otherwise assign it to the PEP editor. When in doubt about where to send your changes, please check first with the PEP author and/or PEP editor. PEP authors who are also SF committers, can update the PEPs themselves by using "cvs commit" to commit their changes. Remember to also push the formatted PEP text out to the web by doing the following: % python pep2html.py -i NUM where NUM is the number of the PEP you want to push out. See % python pep2html.py --help for details. Transferring PEP Ownership It occasionally becomes necessary to transfer ownership of PEPs to a new champion. In general, we'd like to retain the original author as a co-author of the transferred PEP, but that's really up to the original author. A good reason to transfer ownership is because the original author no longer has the time or interest in updating it or following through with the PEP process, or has fallen off the face of the 'net (i.e. is unreachable or not responding to email). A bad reason to transfer ownership is because you don't agree with the direction of the PEP. We try to build consensus around a PEP, but if that's not possible, you can always submit a competing PEP. If you are interested assuming ownership of a PEP, send a message asking to take over, addressed to both the original author and the PEP editor <peps(a)python.org>. If the original author doesn't respond to email in a timely manner, the PEP editor will make a unilateral decision (it's not like such decisions can be reversed. :). References and Footnotes [1] This historical record is available by the normal CVS commands for retrieving older revisions. For those without direct access to the CVS tree, you can browse the current and past PEP revisions via the SourceForge web site at http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/python/nondist/peps/?cvsroot=… [2] http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=5470&atid=305470 [3] http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=355470&group_id=5470&func=browse [4] http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/ [5] The script referred to here is pep2html.py, which lives in the same directory in the CVS tree as the PEPs themselves. Try "pep2html.py --help" for details. The URL for viewing PEPs on the web is http://www.python.org/peps/ [6] http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=5470&atid=305470 [7] PEP 9, Sample PEP Template http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0009.html Copyright This document has been placed in the public domain. Local Variables: mode: indented-text indent-tabs-mode: nil sentence-end-double-space: t fill-column: 70 End:

8 14

Re: subprocess and EINTR errnos
by Peter Astrand July 6, 2009

July 6, 2009

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004, John P Speno wrote: Hi, sorry for the delayed response. > While using subprocess (aka popen5), I came across one potential gotcha. I've had > exceptions ending like this: > > File "test.py", line 5, in test > cmd = popen5.Popen(args, stdout=PIPE) > File "popen5.py", line 577, in __init__ > data = os.read(errpipe_read, 1048576) # Exceptions limited to 1 MB > OSError: [Errno 4] Interrupted system call > > (on Solaris 9) > > Would it make sense for subprocess to use a more robust read() function > which can handle these cases, i.e. when the parent's read on the pipe > to the child's stderr is interrupted by a system call, and returns EINTR? > I imagine it could catch EINTR and EAGAIN and retry the failed read(). I assume you are using signals in your application? The os.read above is not the only system call that can fail with EINTR. subprocess.py is full of other system calls that can fail, and I suspect that many other Python modules are as well. I've made a patch (attached) to subprocess.py (and test_subprocess.py) that should guard against EINTR, but I haven't committed it yet. It's quite large. Are Python modules supposed to handle EINTR? Why not let the C code handle this? Or, perhaps the signal module should provide a sigaction function, so that users can use SA_RESTART. Index: subprocess.py =================================================================== RCS file: /cvsroot/python/python/dist/src/Lib/subprocess.py,v retrieving revision 1.8 diff -u -r1.8 subprocess.py --- subprocess.py 7 Nov 2004 14:30:34 -0000 1.8 +++ subprocess.py 17 Nov 2004 19:42:30 -0000 @@ -888,6 +888,50 @@ pass + def _read_no_intr(self, fd, buffersize): + """Like os.read, but retries on EINTR""" + while True: + try: + return os.read(fd, buffersize) + except OSError, e: + if e.errno == errno.EINTR: + continue + else: + raise + + + def _read_all(self, fd, buffersize): + """Like os.read, but retries on EINTR, and reads until EOF""" + all = "" + while True: + data = self._read_no_intr(fd, buffersize) + all += data + if data == "": + return all + + + def _write_no_intr(self, fd, s): + """Like os.write, but retries on EINTR""" + while True: + try: + return os.write(fd, s) + except OSError, e: + if e.errno == errno.EINTR: + continue + else: + raise + + def _waitpid_no_intr(self, pid, options): + """Like os.waitpid, but retries on EINTR""" + while True: + try: + return os.waitpid(pid, options) + except OSError, e: + if e.errno == errno.EINTR: + continue + else: + raise + def _execute_child(self, args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds, cwd, env, universal_newlines, startupinfo, creationflags, shell, @@ -963,7 +1007,7 @@ exc_value, tb) exc_value.child_traceback = ''.join(exc_lines) - os.write(errpipe_write, pickle.dumps(exc_value)) + self._write_no_intr(errpipe_write, pickle.dumps(exc_value)) # This exitcode won't be reported to applications, so it # really doesn't matter what we return. @@ -979,7 +1023,7 @@ os.close(errwrite) # Wait for exec to fail or succeed; possibly raising exception - data = os.read(errpipe_read, 1048576) # Exceptions limited to 1 MB + data = self._read_all(errpipe_read, 1048576) # Exceptions limited to 1 MB os.close(errpipe_read) if data != "": child_exception = pickle.loads(data) @@ -1003,7 +1047,7 @@ attribute.""" if self.returncode == None: try: - pid, sts = os.waitpid(self.pid, os.WNOHANG) + pid, sts = self._waitpid_no_intr(self.pid, os.WNOHANG) if pid == self.pid: self._handle_exitstatus(sts) except os.error: @@ -1015,7 +1059,7 @@ """Wait for child process to terminate. Returns returncode attribute.""" if self.returncode == None: - pid, sts = os.waitpid(self.pid, 0) + pid, sts = self._waitpid_no_intr(self.pid, 0) self._handle_exitstatus(sts) return self.returncode @@ -1049,27 +1093,33 @@ stderr = [] while read_set or write_set: - rlist, wlist, xlist = select.select(read_set, write_set, []) + try: + rlist, wlist, xlist = select.select(read_set, write_set, []) + except select.error, e: + if e[0] == errno.EINTR: + continue + else: + raise if self.stdin in wlist: # When select has indicated that the file is writable, # we can write up to PIPE_BUF bytes without risk # blocking. POSIX defines PIPE_BUF >= 512 - bytes_written = os.write(self.stdin.fileno(), input[:512]) + bytes_written = self._write_no_intr(self.stdin.fileno(), input[:512]) input = input[bytes_written:] if not input: self.stdin.close() write_set.remove(self.stdin) if self.stdout in rlist: - data = os.read(self.stdout.fileno(), 1024) + data = self._read_no_intr(self.stdout.fileno(), 1024) if data == "": self.stdout.close() read_set.remove(self.stdout) stdout.append(data) if self.stderr in rlist: - data = os.read(self.stderr.fileno(), 1024) + data = self._read_no_intr(self.stderr.fileno(), 1024) if data == "": self.stderr.close() read_set.remove(self.stderr) Index: test/test_subprocess.py =================================================================== RCS file: /cvsroot/python/python/dist/src/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py,v retrieving revision 1.14 diff -u -r1.14 test_subprocess.py --- test/test_subprocess.py 12 Nov 2004 15:51:48 -0000 1.14 +++ test/test_subprocess.py 17 Nov 2004 19:42:30 -0000 @@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import tempfile import time import re +import errno mswindows = (sys.platform == "win32") @@ -35,6 +36,16 @@ fname = tempfile.mktemp() return os.open(fname, os.O_RDWR|os.O_CREAT), fname + def read_no_intr(self, obj): + while True: + try: + return obj.read() + except IOError, e: + if e.errno == errno.EINTR: + continue + else: + raise + # # Generic tests # @@ -123,7 +134,7 @@ p = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable, "-c", 'import sys; sys.stdout.write("orange")'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE) - self.assertEqual(p.stdout.read(), "orange") + self.assertEqual(self.read_no_intr(p.stdout), "orange") def test_stdout_filedes(self): # stdout is set to open file descriptor @@ -151,7 +162,7 @@ p = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable, "-c", 'import sys; sys.stderr.write("strawberry")'], stderr=subprocess.PIPE) - self.assertEqual(remove_stderr_debug_decorations(p.stderr.read()), + self.assertEqual(remove_stderr_debug_decorations(self.read_no_intr(p.stderr)), "strawberry") def test_stderr_filedes(self): @@ -186,7 +197,7 @@ 'sys.stderr.write("orange")'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT) - output = p.stdout.read() + output = self.read_no_intr(p.stdout) stripped = remove_stderr_debug_decorations(output) self.assertEqual(stripped, "appleorange") @@ -220,7 +231,7 @@ stdout=subprocess.PIPE, cwd=tmpdir) normcase = os.path.normcase - self.assertEqual(normcase(p.stdout.read()), normcase(tmpdir)) + self.assertEqual(normcase(self.read_no_intr(p.stdout)), normcase(tmpdir)) def test_env(self): newenv = os.environ.copy() @@ -230,7 +241,7 @@ 'sys.stdout.write(os.getenv("FRUIT"))'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, env=newenv) - self.assertEqual(p.stdout.read(), "orange") + self.assertEqual(self.read_no_intr(p.stdout), "orange") def test_communicate(self): p = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable, "-c", @@ -305,7 +316,8 @@ 'sys.stdout.write("\\nline6");'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, universal_newlines=1) - stdout = p.stdout.read() + + stdout = self.read_no_intr(p.stdout) if hasattr(open, 'newlines'): # Interpreter with universal newline support self.assertEqual(stdout, @@ -343,7 +355,7 @@ def test_no_leaking(self): # Make sure we leak no resources - max_handles = 1026 # too much for most UNIX systems + max_handles = 10 # too much for most UNIX systems if mswindows: max_handles = 65 # a full test is too slow on Windows for i in range(max_handles): @@ -424,7 +436,7 @@ 'sys.stdout.write(os.getenv("FRUIT"))'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, preexec_fn=lambda: os.putenv("FRUIT", "apple")) - self.assertEqual(p.stdout.read(), "apple") + self.assertEqual(self.read_no_intr(p.stdout), "apple") def test_args_string(self): # args is a string @@ -457,7 +469,7 @@ p = subprocess.Popen(["echo $FRUIT"], shell=1, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, env=newenv) - self.assertEqual(p.stdout.read().strip(), "apple") + self.assertEqual(self.read_no_intr(p.stdout).strip(), "apple") def test_shell_string(self): # Run command through the shell (string) @@ -466,7 +478,7 @@ p = subprocess.Popen("echo $FRUIT", shell=1, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, env=newenv) - self.assertEqual(p.stdout.read().strip(), "apple") + self.assertEqual(self.read_no_intr(p.stdout).strip(), "apple") def test_call_string(self): # call() function with string argument on UNIX @@ -525,7 +537,7 @@ p = subprocess.Popen(["set"], shell=1, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, env=newenv) - self.assertNotEqual(p.stdout.read().find("physalis"), -1) + self.assertNotEqual(self.read_no_intr(p.stdout).find("physalis"), -1) def test_shell_string(self): # Run command through the shell (string) @@ -534,7 +546,7 @@ p = subprocess.Popen("set", shell=1, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, env=newenv) - self.assertNotEqual(p.stdout.read().find("physalis"), -1) + self.assertNotEqual(self.read_no_intr(p.stdout).find("physalis"), -1) def test_call_string(self): # call() function with string argument on Windows /Peter Åstrand <astrand(a)lysator.liu.se>

5 5

FishEye on Python CVS Repository
by Peter Moore June 16, 2006

June 16, 2006

Greetings Python Developers, I'm responsible for setting up free FishEye hosting for community projects. As a long time python user I of course added Python up front. You can see it here: http://fisheye.cenqua.com/viewrep/python/ If you aren't familiar with FishEye, it is a repository browsing, searching, analysis, monitoring..., tool for CVS (SVN coming soon). Cool features include: RSS feeds http://fisheye.cenqua.com/changelog/%7Erss/python/rss.xml Synthetic changesets http://fisheye.cenqua.com/changelog/python/ and Pretty ediffs http://fisheye.cenqua.com/viewrep/python/python/nondist/peps/pep-0343.txt?r… SQL like search http://fisheye.cenqua.com/search/python/?ql= Note that normally FishEye is pretty close to real time (i.e. when run on a local repository), but we can only get SF updates once a day, and they are potentially a bit old when we grab them. Feel free to mail me direct pete _at_ cenqua _dot_ com if you want to tweak the python instance or have any other questions/comments not appropriate for this list. Cheers, Pete. --- +61-414-587637 www.cenqua.com/fisheye

3 2

problem installing current cvs
by Irmen de Jong April 17, 2006

April 17, 2006

Hi, I'm having 2 problems with the current cvs : During compilation this warning occurs: *** WARNING: renaming "dbm" since importing it failed: build/lib.linux-i686-2.5/ dbm.so: undefined symbol: dbm_firstkey and the 'dbm' module is unavailable. I'm running MandrakeLinux 2005 (10.2) gcc 3.4.3 (I'm also having this problem when compiling python 2.3.5 or 2.4.1) furthermore the 'make install' of current cvs fails halfway trough with the following errors: ..... ..... Compiling /opt/python25/lib/python2.5/bsddb/test/test_associate.py ... Sorry: TabError: ('inconsistent use of tabs and spaces in indentation', ('/opt/python25/lib/python2.5/bsddb/test/test_associate.py', 97, 23, '\t os.mkdir(homeDir)\n')) Compiling /opt/python25/lib/python2.5/bsddb/test/test_basics.py ... Sorry: TabError: ('inconsistent use of tabs and spaces in indentation', ('/opt/python25/lib/python2.5/bsddb/test/test_basics.py', 400, 26, '\t if get_raises_error:\n')) Compiling /opt/python25/lib/python2.5/bsddb/test/test_compare.py ... Sorry: TabError: ('inconsistent use of tabs and spaces in indentation', ('/opt/python25/lib/python2.5/bsddb/test/test_compare.py', 167, 5, '\t"""\n')) ..... ..... Compiling /opt/python25/lib/python2.5/bsddb/test/test_recno.py ... Sorry: TabError: ('inconsistent use of tabs and spaces in indentation', ('/opt/python25/lib/python2.5/bsddb/test/test_recno.py', 38, 46, '\tget_returns_none = d.set_get_returns_none(2)\n')) ..... ..... make: *** [libinstall] Error 1 $ And then it quits. Fixing the tab indentation errors locally makes the problem go away. Regards, Irmen de Jong

5 4

Terminology for PEP 343
by Raymond Hettinger Aug. 12, 2005

Aug. 12, 2005

With 343 accepted, we can now add __enter__() and __exit__() methods to objects. What term should describe those objects in the documentation? For instance, if the new magic methods are added to decimal.Context(), do we then describe Context objects as "withable" ;-) The PEP itself doesn't provide much of a clue. The terms "template", "wrapper", and "block" are over-broad and do not provide a metaphor for setup/teardown, r entry/exit, or initialization/finalization. Whatever term is selected, it should be well thought-out and added to the glossary. The choice of words will likely have a great effect on learnability and on how people think about the new tool. Raymond

16 33

Some RFE for review
by Reinhold Birkenfeld July 17, 2005

July 17, 2005

Hi, while bugs and patches are sometimes tricky to close, RFE can be very easy to decide whether to implement in the first place. So what about working a bit on this front? Here are several RFE reviewed, perhaps some can be closed ("should" is always from submitter's point of view): 1193128: str.translate(None, delchars) should be allowed and only delete delchars from the string. Review: may be a good feature, although string._idmap can be passed as the first parameter too. 1226256: The "path" module by Jason Orendorff should be in the standard library. http://www.jorendorff.com/articles/python/path/ Review: the module is great and seems to have a large user base. On c.l.py there are frequent praises about it. 1216944: urllib(2) should gain a dict mapping HTTP status codes to the correspondig status/error text. Review: I can't see anything speaking against it. 1214675: warnings should get a removefilter() method. An alternative would be to fully document the "filters" attribute to allow direct tinkering with it. Review: As mwh said in a comment, this isn't Java, so the latter may be the way to go. 1205239: Shift operands should be allowed to be negative integers, so e.g. a << -2 is the same as a >> 2. Review: Allowing this would open a source of bugs previously well identifiable. 1152248: In order to read "records" separated by something other than newline, file objects should either support an additional parameter (the separator) to (x)readlines(), or gain an additional method which does this. Review: The former is a no-go, I think, because what is read won't be lines. The latter is further complicating the file interface, so I would follow the principle that not every 3-line function should be builtin. 1110010: A function "attrmap" should be introduced which is used as follows: attrmap(x)['att'] == getattr(x, 'att') The submitter mentions the use case of new-style classes without a __dict__ used at the right of %-style string interpolation. Review: I don't know whether this is worth it. 1052098: An environment variable should be supported to set the default encoding. Review: If one wants this for a single application, he can still implement it himself. 985094: getattr should support a callable as the second argument, used as follows: getattr(obj, func) == func(obj) Review: Highly unintuitive to me. That's all for today; sorry if it was too much ;) Reinhold -- Mail address is perfectly valid!

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Is PEP 237 final -- Unifying Long Integers and Integers
by Raymond Hettinger July 14, 2005

July 14, 2005

IIRC, there was a decision to not implement phase C and to keep the trailing L in representations of long integers. If so, I believe the PEP can be marked as final. We've done all we're going to do. Raymond

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Inconsistent API for sets.Set and build-in set
by Barry Warsaw July 7, 2005

July 7, 2005

I've been looking at the API for sets.Set and built-in set objects in Python 2.4.1 and I think I have found some minor inconsistencies. Background: we have an object that is very similar to "sets" and we originally modeled the API after sets.Set since we started with Python 2.3. Now I'm trying to update the API so that it's consistent with Python 2.4's built-in set object and I've noticed the following discrepancies. set.Set has both an .update() method and a .union_update() method. They appear to be completely identical, accepting either a Set object or an arbitrary sequence. This is the case despite the docstring difference for these two methods and the fact that Set.update() isn't documented on the texinfo page. Built-in set has only .update() though but it acts just like the set.Set methods above. Note that of all these methods, only Set.update() is documented to take an iterable argument. These inconsistencies could prove a bit problematic when porting Py2.3 applications using sets.Set to Py2.4 using built-in set. I'd like to fix this for Python 2.4.2, and I think the changes are pretty minimal. If there are no objections, I propose to do the following (only in Python 2.4 and 2.5): * Add set.union_update() as an alias for set.update(). * Add to docstrings for all methods that 't' can be any iterable. * Update texinfo documentation to add Set.update() and set.union_update() and explain that all can take iterables I consider this a bug in 2.4, not a new feature, because without it, it makes more work in porting applications. Thoughts? I'm willing to Just Fix It, but if someone wants to see a patch first, I'll be happy to generate it and post it to SF. -Barry

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Possible C API problem?
by Gary Robinson July 6, 2005

July 6, 2005

Hello, I was asking about a problem I was having over on the C++-python list, and they suggested I report it here as a possible Python problem. I was getting bus errors with a C module I was linking to, so factored it down too a very small example that reproduced the problem. Here it is: #include <Python.h> static double gfSumChiSquare = 123.0; static PyObject * getSumChiSquare(PyObject *self, PyObject *args){ return Py_BuildValue("d", gfSumChiSquare); } static PyMethodDef SimMethods[] = { {"getSumChiSquare", getSumChiSquare, METH_NOARGS, "Return fSumChiSquare"}, {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL} /* Sentinel */ }; PyMODINIT_FUNC inittestfloat(void) { (void) Py_InitModule("testfloat", SimMethods); } That caused a bus error 100% of the time when I simply imported the module into Python and called getSumChiSquare(), i.e.: >>> import testfloat >>> testfloat.getSumChiSquare() However, the problem seems to go away if I use METH_VARARGS, and parse the non-existent args with PyArg_ParseTuple: #include <Python.h> static double gfSumChiSquare = 123.0; static PyObject * getSumChiSquare(PyObject *self, PyObject *args){ if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "", NULL)) return NULL; return Py_BuildValue("d", gfSumChiSquare); } static PyMethodDef SimMethods[] = { {"getSumChiSquare", getSumChiSquare, METH_VARARGS, "Return fSumChiSquare"}, {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL} /* Sentinel */ }; PyMODINIT_FUNC inittestfloat(void) { (void) Py_InitModule("testfloat", SimMethods); } This approach seems to work reliably -- at least variations I've tried haven't caused a bus error. But I haven't been able to discern an explanation from the docs as to why this would be better. The docs say that both METH_VARARGS and METH_NOARGS expect a PyCFunction. So if I am calling the function with no arguments, why can't I use METH_NOARGS and skip the call to PyArg_ParseTuple? Could it be that this is a python bug? Or am I doing something wrong? Note: this is using Python 2.3 on OS X: Python 2.3 (#1, Sep 13 2003, 00:49:11) Thanks in advance for any help or insight you can give, Gary -- Gary Robinson CTO Emergent Music, LLC grobinson(a)goombah.com 207-942-3463 Company: http://www.goombah.com Blog: http://www.garyrobinson.net

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using pyhon from the MSYS shell
by lode leroy July 6, 2005

July 6, 2005

I was trying to compile a python plugin (for gimp) using the MSYS shell and the MINGW compiler. I now have put this in 'sitecustomize' $ cat /c/Python24/lib/site-packages/sitecustomize.py import sys import os import re if os.environ.get("MSYSTEM") == "MINGW32": os.sep='/' os.pathsep='/' sys.prefix = re.sub('\\\\','/',sys.prefix) sys.exec_prefix = re.sub('\\\\','/',sys.exec_prefix) It would probably be better to have python detect that it's running from inside the msys shell, and output '/'es instead of '\'es. maybe someone could extend os.path to do this in the standard distribution: implement an msyspath.py, which calls ntpath for each function, and does a replace at the end of the evaluation. Unfortunately, I'm just starting to look into python, so I do not know what the cleanest implementation of this would be...

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